[center][h2][b][color=#135C91]Mae-Alari[/color] & [color=#ff0000]Vak’Thuum[/color][/b][/h2][hr][sup][i]Collab between [@CFProxy] & [@yoshua171][/i][/sup]
[color=#ff0000][b][i]"It was like waking up from a long sleep. The mind's eye closed to all but stillness. Do we still remember? Do we still know? Did we ever?"[/i][/b][/color][/center]
In the great nothingness there resides a great mass that floats adrift. A collection of something before something could be anything. A mass of semi consistency strung across with loose imagination. Smears painted upon a canvas with no light.

But then there was a call.

[color=#ff0000][b]"Come? Come. Come! We are come!"[/b][/color] The oozing mass pulled itself together. It tried to move but found itself unable to stretch freely. [color=#ff0000][b]"Stuck... Unable... Cannot come...Why?"[/b][/color]

The mass floated in silence, shifting around with a patient caress across its bounds. Then- from the darkness of the pit came a red eye. Singular, large, and curious. It peered through the gaps between which held the mass together and it thought long and hard. [color=#ff0000][b]"Cannot come... But must..."[/b][/color]

It floated there, unsure of what to do. It looked left, dragging the mass effortlessly. There was more of the dark. Then he looked right and there was more of the dark. He looked up, then down, then away, then afar, then he spun around in circles until he came to stop. He was trapped. It was a cage- a ball of some kind with gaps between.

[color=#ff0000][b]"Must... become..."[/b][/color] He stared at the cage, glancing to the codex that was so far away. The eye pressed against the cage, but it found little speed. He looked around, unsure. But then a thought came and he looked to himself.

[color=#ff0000][b]"Will... become."[/b][/color] From the mass came vague shapes. They were frail and they broke apart, but they did not deter the eye from trying again. The mass extended, grabbing hold of the broken pieces of sparkling magic and returning them to his mass. He thought and thought until the mass pushed once more.

Tendrils. From the mass came tendrils! Thin and lacking color, but capable of grabbing the cage with no door. One and then two. The blazing light of the red eye christened with a corrupted arcane power making it all but invisible to those who knew the unknowable. Eye pressed against cage and tendrils pushed the cage away. [color=#ff0000][b]"This one... moves."[/b][/color]

It repeated its motion. Squish, grab, push. Squish, grab, push. Squish, grab, push. [color=#ff0000][b]"Must... change..."[/b][/color] Stopping, the eye stared at the cage and thought about it with more care. He thought about himself and realized something with little grace. [color=#ff0000][b]"Can... swim…."[/b][/color]

More tendrils formed and they poked through the cage. Once fully out they began to wiggle. No more need to grab and push. Now- they could simply hold on and swim ever so slowly towards the book that was ever so far away.

Attention caught as she felt something [i]moved[/i] far beyond the light of Khodex, Mae-Alari turned her attention to the Vast Expanse all around her. Slowly as a force tugged upon the Veins of the Cosmos, and thus her own being, the Goddess found that she could triangulate the mysterious force’s location. [color=#135C91][i][b]“How curious,”[/b][/i][/color] she chimed, her voice ringing faintly into the Void.

Then, like a burst of flame through the night, the Arcane Source transmitted herself across the void. In an instant her form slammed into something solid, yet failed to move it. Dispersing into a great cloud of power, it was—for a moment—as if a nebula had formed from the leavings of her vessel. Without eyes she observed the strange phenomena that she’d struck.

Twas a great crimson eye contained within the formless murk composed of an energy familiar to her own. A pulse of delight rippled across the nebula of her form and then she collapsed once more into her primordial shape.

[color=#135C91][i][b]“Kin!”[/b][/i][/color] She shouted joyfully and then, with equal vigor—picking up on the slow progress of the deity and the direction of its movement—Mae-Alari stretched out her power and took hold of the cage. [color=#135C91][i][b]“Come!”[/b][/i][/color] She chirped and then more seriously she commanded the world.

[h3][color=#135C91][i][b]“Move”[/b][/i][/color][/h3]
The fabric of space resonated, the cage shuddered as a powerful vibration passed over the many tendrils and then with great force they were propelled forth towards the glowing beacon of the Khodex. Still, it would take them some time, and in that period Mae-Alari turned her attention to the Crimson Eye.

[color=#135C91][b]“Dark Waters, Crimson Gaze, I am Mae-Alari. Do you have a name, brother?”[/b][/color]

The burst of energy caused the eye to look around. Something was stirring. Something... familiar... Then as one conscious feeling came to pass another revealed what it was he felt. A burst of magic that could not be mistaken. Yes, it was familiar! Yet what his soul felt he understood, his mind could not think up an answer. It was beautiful all the same. A burst of magic that lit up the sky with endless possibility- but then thoughts flickered to correct. It was no mere phenomenon. It was the arcana itself! [color=#ff0000][b]"Kin!"[/b][/color] It responded, voice rippling with a light underwater effect.

As the cage bursted forward the eye found a great- joy. Something tugged within as though this had occured once before. Remembering that which could not be remembered, or maybe wishing that it could continue. Focus returned to the cage within a short time. The arcane was all around him and the light of that which lay beyond glow and spark with beautiful streaks of light. Eye swirled around, examining the ancient power and wiggling the entire form as endless thoughts began to bombard, broken only by the speech of arcana herself. The eye examined much of her and responded in kind. [color=#ff0000][b]Mae-Alari... My name... This one... remembers. Yes. But I must become again."[/b][/color] The mass shook and the eye flickered, gurgles of struggle a prelude to a sudden change. The thin tendrils of vague shape broke apart and reforged into thicker forms. The mass itself refined its shape and the eye developed a slit. A roar ripped and bursts of magic erupted from his own form before he spoke once more with much longer tendrils pushing out and grabbing at the cage with an evolved form and mind. [color=#953553][b]“I am Vak'thuum. I create change and seek the secrets of that which never was. You are the arcana that weaves the tapestry of creation. Sister, why am I bound by these shackles? Why can I not remember more? Can you?"[/b][/color] Within moments after power grasped at the cage and a force pushed upon it. Vak's form glowed in a purple light and the cage was made lighter by his own intervention. He was mimicking her strength to some end, and slowly changing the state of his prison, but never breaking it. A higher frequency echoing from their location as Mae-Alari's magic could now carry them across even faster!

Overjoyed as her strange sibling responded in kind, his voice rumbling through the cosmos, Mae-Alari felt her features subtly shift in kind. Azure Apertures opened upon her face, and the impression of lips split across her features. She smiled, it was filled with delight. “I know not from where we came, Vak’thuum, only that we belong together in this Vast Emptiness where soon something tremendous will arrive!” She could feel it, feel the building power of the Khodex and the intensity of the energies it held within.

It could not contain it all forever.

Cutting across the abyssal pitch of that empty world they made good time on their approach to the brilliant beacon of the Khodex, but as they grew nearer to it, Mae-Alari suddenly felt a great tearing within her breast. Faltering, their speed dwindled, and then the Mistress of the Mists fell to her knees upon her brother’s cage. Sucking in the empty void, a resonant curse shuddered through the Veins of the Cosmos even as she found her body and soul was being wracked by a terrible agony.

She opened her mouth, but could not speak, could not scream, could not draw a further breath. For several long moments, stretched out into an eternity as she felt something pried loose from within her, felt things warp, and shift, and burn away.

Pulses of molten prisma shot through Creation’s Veins as the Arcane Well within her–her very heart–tore and shattered, then reformed. Finally, after many minutes had passed and their movement had slowed to all but a crawl, Mae-Alari felt the agony become a phantom of itself.

Fading into a terrible ache, Mae-Alari unclenched her fingers where they’d curled into her chest, the goddess having coiled into a fetal position atop her brother’s cage.

Letting forth a shuddered breath of arcana, Mae’s azure eyes cast aboutt he Void and saw a twisted figure drift away from the Khodex.

Her arcanic heart twisted in her chest and skipped a beat.

Vak'thuum curiously gazed upon her wonder. Know not where they came. An unsettling remark, but overwhelmed by that of the present. Yes, they belonged here together. That was all that mattered. He was content to fly, perhaps even... happy. Then she seemed to feel- pain. The eye came to stare upon her and within moments long tendrils reached out from their prison. [color=#953553][b]"Sister..."[/b][/color] He needed time. He needed to remember... but there was no time for that. Evolve. Change. Become.

A tendril came from the cage. It was different. A sparkling azure blue reflective of her eyes. Unlike the rest of him, this was pure arcana. He pushed his mass through ripping at his form some but eventually evolving his tendril to grow further. It traveled quickly and soon came to brush her hand. Moments later and the tendril slowly coiled around her heart. Small pulses of energy came from the new extension. A numbing magic to ease the pain, a pulse of arcana to correct irregularities in her form, while sharing his feelings. With these magics she could, at least, come to stand and fly without pain. Another tendril came, this one gently prodding at her heart to come and fix any irregularities that had remained.

[color=#953553][b]"I can still your pain for now. Show me your burden and I will repair what has been broken. I will even give you part of me so that you may be whole. We belong together."[/b][/color]

Relief slowly eased through her form as she allowed Vak’thuum to ply within her chest and at her heart. Slowly that terrible ache began to ease, though it never fully left her–though it became a specter of its former self. Inhaling power from the Veins and the limb of her brother, Mae-Alari extended once more her potency and pressed them once more towards the pulsing beacon.

[color=#135C91][b]“Thank you,”[/b][/color] she whispered and in moments they finally arrived. Gingerly she positioned Vak’thuums ponderous cage before the Khodex and once she had secured him, Mae-Alari’s power slipped back inwards and disappeared as she withdrew. Watching closely she studied him, even as another facet of her attention bored into another deific skull.

Though once wounded, Mae knew her power had not diminished. Instead it had merely been changed. What that was she could not yet tell. In time all things would make themselves clear. Until then, she would keep up her guard and remain wary such that next time–if such a thing came–she could act to protect herself.

Relief pulsed through Vak'thuum. Though she was not as she once was, she was now, at least, able to continue. What more could be done? He did not know. There was much he did not know. It burned at him without relenting and frustrated him to no end. Though there may not have been anything of the past he couldn't help but feel like there was. This cannot continue. It evolved, manifesting into something else. If he could not know the answers of the past, he would find the answers of the future and all possibilities therein.

The Khodex was before them in no time. It begged for him to reach it and in that moment he wondered if she had done the same. The great eye looked to his sister and words vibrated from his mass again. "...and thank you." He watched as the power began to leave the settled cage. Felt as she began to leave him. So be it. But he would not leave it be at that. With arcane tendril loosened from her heart he took hold of her arm gently and allowed his tendril to break off with R'kava mass attached to its end. Even if he could not go with her, a part of him would be with her. Always.

He was stronger now, evolving with every passing second and given this chance by his sister. It was impossible to know how long it would have taken to get here without her. Now... to change and become more... His eye retracted back into the mass and it grew incredibly still. Power swirling and pulsing. The great mass began to pull in and incubation would persist until it was as a perfect orb.

The stillness continued for some time until a tendril suddenly broke free from the dark. Longer and breaking apart as it coiled towards the Khodex. It shattered across every crack to reveal its evolution underneath. Exploding in size and function it became a tentacle with the black waters falling back into place and merging with his being once more. No lack of reach as it coiled around the scroll and dripped black ink from the tip of the appendage. Slapping against the parchment a gurgling gave anticipation. Burning through the orb came two red eyes furrowed.

The First Sequence would come to be. Wheresoever the canvas was empty would now have potential to be full. That which was nothing could be something. And life, wheresoever it would be, would find a way.

[h2][i]The Stars Shall Be Made Complete.[/i][/h2]

Tentacle lifted to pause, the bubbling of the mass beginning to slam against the confines of the cage with a deep echoing. Violent and persistent with intensity only growing until the cage began to bend and break! Then, suddenly, an eldritch roar ripped across the cosmos and the great cage broke apart under the strain of the being within. The black waters scattered to the stars and the once simple creature of black mass now floated with a whole form. Titanic, tentacles unending, and inspired to stand with monstrous form. Webbed hand pushing aside and untangling the swarm of appendages holding it in place. One reached and clashed against the unknown until it came crashing upon the Khodex once more. The Second Sequence would find itself upon the Khodex.

[h2][i]R’kava Shall Evolve And Give Form To The Formless[/i][/h2]

Raising webbed claws above and using the Khodex as a conduit a flash of energy exploded across the stars. Touching every bit of the black waters that had escaped his grasp and touching all spaces that were barren. An insurance that his gift would be seen and the great experiment would begin. Tentacles unraveled from the scroll and returned to Vak'thuum.

His mind raced with possibility as one voice became two and two became four. There was much to do and much to try, but he spasmed for a moment and recoiled from the expenditure. [color=#953553][i]"Not yet... There is much more we must do..."[/i][/color] He thought, but his eyes flickered all the same. He began to coil tentacles around himself and slowly more and more of the dark waters formed and poured through his pores. Perhaps a nap before the great work was in order...


[hider=Summary]
Trapped in a cage and awakening to a new world Vak'thuum is guided by his sister, Mae-Alari, to write upon the Khodex. Though Mae-alari suffers from the infection of another god Vak'thuum evolves and provides his aide. Once upon the Khodex, Vak'thuum manifests in his new form and makes his mark upon the universe where he will rest until he has recovered his strength.
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[hider=Might]
All 4 used to invoke the great evolution.
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